


Abel

by Sir_Bedevere



Series: First Born [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Blood and Violence, But I probably don't need to tell you that, Childbirth, Crowley Loves Kids (Good Omens), Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Oh boy this one isn't happy, Snake Crowley (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 15:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20566877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Bedevere/pseuds/Sir_Bedevere
Summary: A demon watches over the death of the second child, afraid that he will be punished for his mercy.An angel watches over the death of the second child, afraid of his guilt.





	Abel

The second time around, Crawly is there, but the angel is nowhere to be seen. 

If he reaches out, to the very edges of his true form, Crawly can feel an echo from far away that might be the angel’s true form calling back to him. He hasn’t tried to find him since the last time he saw him, here in this same cave at the birth of the First Child. If it is the angel reaching to him, he is very far away upon this new Earth, and he is wandering. Crawly wonders how the angel can be lost when there is no one here except them, and this small family who dwell fitfully in this cave. 

For a moment, Crawly almost leaves and goes to where Aziraphale might be, to bring him here to witness. But he doesn’t, in the end. He’s sure Aziraphale must know what is happening, just as Crawly somehow knew the first time. If he doesn’t wish to be here, that is his business.

Eve and Adam are more sure this time around, and there is no metallic tang of fear in the air as there had been at Cain’s birth. Instead there is anticipation, sharp on Crawly’s tongue. He lurks in the shadows to watch, Eve calm and Adam steady in his role as she pushes the Second Child into the world. Cain is so small still, swaddled in his blanket as he sits and watches. His eyes are round and large, hair tousled and curly and Crawly thinks that he is so beautiful. She has created humans so so beautiful. A stab of jealousy shoots through him, and he brings his hands to his sides, fists curling. Of course She would care about her youngest children. She always cares the most about her newest creation. Even these _humans_ who have been cast out, as Crawly was cast out. Their child is beautiful. Crawly thinks of the demons crowded into Hell, and slams his palm against the rock he is leaning on. 

As the babe comes into the world, and opens its mouth to cry, Cain winces and turns to look at Crawly. His eyes are dark in the shadowy dimness of the cave, but there is something in them that Crawly can see even so. Jealousy. The same jealousy that he feels coursing through him, and he stares at the child until Adam breaks the connection, calls the boy over to look upon his brother. 

Cain totters on unsteady feet and touches the baby’s brow gently, and Crawly wonders if he imagined the look in his eyes as he bends to kiss him, as Adam shows him how to do. But then Eve unfolds the scarf that Crawly recognises as his own and wraps the baby in it, and Cain holds tightly to the material, until Adam speaks sharply to him. 

This time he feels the jealousy inside of himself as Cain glances his way again. 

**

Crawly has been down to Hell almost as much as he has been on the Earth, and on his first trip back, to report the birth of Abel, he is told his next mission. 

He does not go back to Hell for twenty years. 

Instead he watches, silent, as the children grow. The family move beyond the cave and go further from Eden, find new lands with more water and soil that will grow things. They find animals they have never seen before, and learn to farm them. 

They’re so clever.

And all the while, Crawly follows them, and when he is not following, he takes his snake form and he sleeps. Sometimes for months at a time, because he has his mission, and it is the very last thing he wants to think about. He is not sure he likes humans, but compared to demons, compared to the self-righteous forces of Heaven, he will take humans every time. And the small ones are so vulnerable, so excited by everything they see that their joy is like sparks in the air, and Crawly can catch them in his hands. Their joy is like the stars that are so far away from him now. So he sleeps, because to know the small ones only makes it so much worse.

And, very occasionally, he reaches out to find the angel. He is still out there, somewhere, and Crawly wonders what it would be like to speak to him. He wonders if the angel is as lonely as he is. But most of all he wonders why the angel does not come, for surely Heaven must know that the demon is watching the family. There are no other humans to watch over, after all. 

**

The day comes when Crawly receives a missive, a young demon sent to him to pass on a simple message.

_It is time._

**

Cain is a man now, young and muscular and handsome, and he is angry. Crawly remembers those dark eyes, the look the babe had given him once, and knows this has been ordained all along. It must be.

“Cain.” 

Crawly appears before him in his human form. He is sure the man has been warned about the dangers of snakes.

“You have followed me.” Cain stops his pacing and cocks his head to the side. “I have always seen you, my whole life, from the corner of my eye. And now you are here before me, and you speak my name.”

“I have been with you, always.”

“Are you from God?”

“Of a fashion.”

The lies do not stick so fast if they do not quite have the taste of lies. 

“I have fallen out with God,” Cain snarls. “They accepted Abel’s sacrifice over mine.”

Crawly sinks down to sit upon the ground, to stop his legs trembling. Abel is so very young. _Cain_ is so very young. 

“God has a test for you. If you wish to please Her, you need only make another sacrifice. One that proves you know the true meaning of the word.”

Cain stares at him, and he is once more than young boy in the cave. Crawly looks away, pretending to be looking at something in the sky. When his eyes flicker back, Cain is on the ground before him, and he is holding his head in his hands. Crawly has a strange desire to reach out and touch him. 

The silence is breathless, the hot summer breeze the only sound, like fire licking through the air. Crawly’s human heart stops when the man gets slowly to his feet. 

“Leave me,” Cain says. “I know what I must do.”

**

The first Crawly knows of it is Eve’s scream. 

Funny, to always be drawn to the sound. It is the sound that echoed in a cave long ago, the sound of life being brought into the world.

And now it is the sound of life leaving it. 

Cain did the job with a blade, sharp and true, but the blood is pouring just the same. He’s on his knees, eyes glassy as he watches his mother cradling Abel’s body. Abel had still been growing the last time Crawly saw him, bigger than his brother or even his father, but he seems very small now. 

As Adam, sobbing, pulls his first born to his feet, Cain looks to the sky and then to Crawly, desperate. Clouds are gathering, and the wind picks up, and Cain knows. He knows this is not what he was promised. But now it is too late. 

Crawly wonders if his human heart can force itself out of his mouth. 

Then a brush comes at the edge of his mind, and he cannot help it. He brings time to a halt, because he cannot listen to the sobbing and see the angel as well. Sure enough, when he turns to the trees, Aziraphale is there. 

“Where have you been, angel?” Crawly hisses, fighting to keep hold of time, fighting to keep hold of his human form, fighting to keep hold of his anger. “Look what has happened since you’ve been gone.”

Aziraphale is sitting on the ground, his eyes on the bloody scene before him, on Adam’s raised hand, Eve’s tears, Abel’s lifeless body. 

“You could have stopped this!” Crawly says, because the angel is silent and he thinks he might go mad with it. 

“I - I.” The angel swallowed. “I was told to keep away. Orders. Told to - let it happen.”

“_Let it happen?_” Crawly clenches his hands tightly. The pain of keeping all of this held fast is almost too much. “But why would-”

Aziraphale looks up at him, miserable, and in a rush Crawly understands. He loses the threads he is holding and half collapses as the scene comes to life once more, the clouds crack overhead and Cain is forced down to his knees. 

And Crawly loses control of himself too, turns into the snake that feels so much less of this pain, and slithers away before the angel can say anything else. He hears him calling, but he does not turn back.

All of this time, and somehow She is still in control.


End file.
